Snapchat had signed up more US users for its app than its rival Instagram has since the beginning of the year, but new data shows those figures are quickly disappearing.

Instagram received 62% of new user sign-ups globally in August 2017, while Snapchat received 38%. Instagram’s global lead over Snapchat reflects the company's concerted efforts to appeal to users abroad. Additionally, its parent Facebook’s large global user base of over 2 billion monthly users likely also played a role in Instagram’s leadership. On the other hand, Snap has largely shied away from growing its user base in less developed markets where data connections may not be as strong. Fifty-six percent of Snapchat’s daily users in Q2 2017 came from outside of the US, while just 24% came from its Rest of World region, and the remaining 20% came from Europe.

Snapchat's signup advantage looks poised to disappear soon. Though Snapchat held leadership over Instagram in US signups in August, its slowing user growth is evident in the downward trend in the proportion of US signups. Snapchat’s percentage of new-user sign ups started decelerating meaningfully in September 2016, which is likely because Instagram Stories first launched the prior month. Snapchat added just 15 million users daily users from Q4 2016 to Q2 2017, while Instagram Stories added 100 million daily users this year alone. Snapchat could accelerate user growth by increasingly building out unique features not found on Instagram.

Snapchat can still raise engagement among existing users to pitch itself to advertisers. Though slowing user growth may remain an issue for Snapchat, because of Instagram’s mimicking, Snapchat can still create new ways for users to interact and build out its Discover section to keep users in-app for longer periods of time. Here at FDMC on a local level, we have seen strong declines of people using Snapchat and steady increase of engagement on Instagram. This reflects those national study figures as being very accurate.

Marketers and advertisers are finding success on Instagram with video, a format the social media platform. Instagram, owned by Facebook, added video to this mobile platform clear back in 2013 when everyone thought what the heck can anyone do with this? Now we know.According to new data from social media analytics firm NewsWhip, photos are typically still generating higher engagement levels than videos among Instagram users but video is fast catching up.Some news and media organizations appear to be taking note of video’s appeal among Instagram users, and a select few have been adding such content at a furious pace. Sports Illustrated, for example, posted just eight videos to its Instagram account in May 2016, but upped that figure to 325 this May. ESPN, for its part, more than doubled its number of Instagram videos over the same period.There’s an obvious reason for the spike in the number of videos posted to these media properties’ Instagram accounts: Publishers have increasingly been turning to video ads to bolster their bottom lines. The trend of increased social video advertising is reflected in those responsible for overseeing ad budgets. Instagram has also done its part to encourage spending on its video ads. In February 2016, the Facebook-owned property extended the maximum length of video ads to 60 seconds, up from 30 seconds, to give advertisers more leeway with their creative. And in January of this year, Instagram opened up its Stories sharing feature to full-screen, auto playing video ads for the first time. So the question is, What are is your business doing to use Instagram for your marketing and advertising?-Roy

When Microsoft announced it was acquiring LinkedIn for $26 billion last December, the tech world responded with a collective “Huh?” Since that purchase, LinkedIn has become more than just a place to park one’s digital resume; it has established itself as an essential destination for marketers looking to reach an executive audience.Over the last two years, LinkedIn has pumped up its publishing platform, tamped down the spam, streamlined its mobile and desktop apps, and introduced new lead-generation and targeting tools. In August, the network unveiled a posse of third-party partners to help marketers create and manage campaigns. The company had begun to roll out the ability to host native video directly on the site.We all know that LinkedIn is not in the same league as Facebook for consumer marketing. The platform is increasingly part of the conversation among top brands, he adds. One reason is the sheer volume of data the social network collects. LinkedIn’s half a billion users share a lot of information—not merely their digital CVs, but endorsements, recommendations, blog posts, comments, likes, shares and follows.But LinkedIn has another big advantage over other, more social networks. Unlike Twitter and Facebook, it’s not besotted with fake profiles, fake news and angry invective. As a result, it’s become a kind of refuge for real people who want to discuss ideas, not hurl insults or swap memes. Authenticity and polite discourse are two reasons why business periodicals have embraced LinkedIn as a publishing platform.Many of these improvements can be traced to changes LinkedIn began making well before the Microsoft acquisition. Two years ago, the network decided to abandon “shallow growth tactics,” which led to aggressive email and endorsement campaigns, in favor of boosting its value to members.Instead of only displaying posts by people within one’s network, LinkedIn tweaked its recommendation algorithms to share content based on members’ interests. It’s also begun to use “sessions”—clocking each time members use LinkedIn more than 30 minutes after their last activity—as a key metric of user engagement. Over the last nine months, the number of sessions has increased by more than 20 percent each quarter,Along the way, LinkedIn also enhanced its advertising and sales tools. Advertisers can install code on their sites that lets them create richer user profiles and track conversions from LinkedIn, such as event sign-ups and white paper downloads. Marketing pros can create more precisely targeted LinkedIn campaigns, and users can now auto-fill lead generation forms with a single click.LinkedIn will never match Facebook for volume, Twitter for notoriety, YouTube for eyeballs, and Instagram or Snapchat for fun. In the meantime, the social network with half a billion professionals is happy to keep doing what it’s best at—connecting talent to opportunities at scale—far from the turmoil and the trolls.